The Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

Regardless of whether it’s really a right-vs-left test, I share it here because a) it’s fun, b) it’s eye-catching, c) it’s an example of what it takes for media to go viral. Let’s look at the buzzworthy elements of this baby:

1. Creative Visual: Whether it’s a photo, video, or — in this case — gif animation, a creative visual immediately catches the eye. (Plus, we’re all attracted to the human form. Naked spinning human forms in particular.) That seems obvious, but a lot of marketers try to promote “word of mouth” with words only. Support your local artist!

2. Interactivity: This isn’t just something to read — it’s something to interact with. And it actively engages the viewer without being as demanding as, say, a multiple-choice brain teaser. Another effective form of interactivity is a simple poll, which I know I can’t resist.

3. Education: We humans like to learn things, particularly about ourselves. The reason school was often so painful was because of the uninspired presentations, and because it was also so freakin’ serious. (“Pass or fail!”) Educational media performs exceedingly well in a non-academic context, particularly if done with a little showbiz flair. As I noted in an earlier post, Suze Orman is building a media empire based on personal finance. And some of the biggest hits on YouTube are how-to or demonstration videos, such as this Diet Coke + Mentos classic:

That one video probably boosted Mentos sales more than all those creepy Swedish commercials put together. (I’m sure the folks at Diet Coke were damned gleeful over this as well.)

So if you can make your message visually creative, interactive and entertainingly educational, you’ve got the elements for one viral piece of media. To help it on its viral way, you then need to launch a little promo campaign — but we’ll save that for another blog. I’m too dizzy from watching this girl spin. (And by the way, I can only see her spinning clockwise.)

Update 3/6/8: I finally did get her to go the other way. It took a lot of sweet talking and some chocolate, but it worked…

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Freddy is the Founder & Creative Strategist of Atomic Tango. He also teaches at the University of Southern California (go Trojans!), shoots pool somewhat adequately, and herds cats. Freddy received his BA from Harvard and his MBA from USC.

10 Responses

J&Bbooks

actually, I think the illusion consists in this: you don’t know the perspective from which you have to look at it (her?)
in an eagle eye vision she’ll be spinning clockwise and the contrary if you think you see her from below.
once you find this you can see her spinning the way you want, even if I find easier seeing at first sight the clockwise spin.
anyway I totally agree with your statements about viral

Josh

This started to freak me out a little bit, at first it was only going clockwise, but after staring at it (trying to figure out how in the world someone could see it going anti-clockwise) it switched! now it seems like every time I look at it, its going a different direction! Are you sure that its not just switching at random intervals? ;-) I guess the secret is you don’t get to see textures on the girl, so you can’t really tell if she is “coming” or “going”.

Charlotte C. LaCour

I looked at this for 10 mins trying to figure out how to make her spin counter-clockwise. After reading Josh’s comment about not being able to tell if she’s coming or going I decided to look at her legs to determine which one my perspective is putting in front and then switch it. Worked immediately.